As I rebuild my engine, I've got the old girl idling well at around 8* BTDC @ 1000 RPM (15" Vac). This is apparently the norm for having an Edelbrock performance cam the PO installed.

I had to install a reman distributor from autozone, and it still idles fine, but plugging in the vac advance causes the engine to go haywire. I confirmed it wasn't a vacuum leak, and the vac advance canister holds a signal perfectly well.

Is there something that I'm really missing? Does the upgraded cam mess with timing to a significant degree? Is it possible my centrifugal advance is already in at 1000 degrees, so it doesn't have much further to go, thus causing the vac advance to cause stutters/backfires/and bogs?